DIIV's second record



DIIV's Oshin held by US talk show host, David Letterman

Almost a year after the release of their landmark debut, New York’s hottest band are hitting the studio to create their sophomore record. And although its name is currently unknown to the public, DIIV’s second album has just reached the recording stage. Although it’s nowhere near its release, the album’s poised to be nothing but one of, if not the, greatest and most important albums of the decade.DIIV received enormous acclaim in 2012 when Oshin was released, but it was in 2013 that DIIV launched themselves into the public eye of the British music-appreciating public. Oshin was arguably the greatest album released in a year that otherwise lacked great albums, and with record number two DIIV are ready to climb to even greater heights.

Here’s what we know about DIIV’s second record already;

• It’s most likely to be self-produced.
• It’s due for release “around March”
• Zachary Cole Smith has cited singer-songwriter Elliott Smith as the key influence on the record.
• The two songs that may be included on the album are Dust, and an untitled song- both of which are played by DIIV at almost every live show.
• Smith says that the album is to be recorded around now (November/December).
• The band cancelled a South American tour to get to work on the album sooner, among other reasons.

So why am I giving you a lecture on how fantastic this album is to be, if this is all we know? To start with, the only song which we've heard which is more than likely to be included on the album is Dust, which although lacking a studio recording, is plastered all over the internet in all of its beauty. In essence, Dust sounds very much like an early Blue Aeroplanes song, with the fast paced rock ‘n’ roll of 21^st century bands like The Hives and The Strokes thrown in to the mix, and to top it off, the fantastic shoegazing guitar sound that is not dissimilar to early Ride. There is no doubt in my mind that DIIV’s Dust is a contender for the song of 2013, so if this is anything at all to go by; more is to follow suite. As well as that, the Untitled Song they’ve been playing at recent gigs is more of what we’ve heard on Oshin, but with a much faster tempo and more audible lyrics- although that may be down to the fact it’s a live version.

As well as this, singer Zachary Cole Smith has stated that the album will be much more personal than Oshin and will have much “darker” themes than before. With songs like Oshin (Subsume), Doused and Sometime on their first record, Smith has proved he’s a more than talented lyricist- so the additional influence of the late, great Elliott Smith can only be for the better. Smith’s suffer with depression has been frequently publicised in the music press, and other events like his recent arrest for the possession of 42 bags of heroin have indicated that record number 2 will feature songs about the darker side of life, and the like.

Smith wants to, with this record, add more of a pop structure to the songwriting. Although verse-chorus-verse songs are an unlikely prospect for the revolutionary guitar band, Smith wants to leave the free-flowing Krautrock-inspired structure that came with Oshin. Smith states this is something else down to the influence of Elliott Smith and his songwriting.

Next March can’t come fast enough for anyone with any sort of music taste- and it’s not too far away. As well as that, DIIV are debuting some of their new material at 2013’s last NYC show, which should give some lucky people a chance to hear DIIV’s new songs before a lot of the music industry (with some luck, some new songs will appear on YouTube). The band don’t have any plans for a European tour anytime soon, but it’s more than probable that they’ll hit the festival circuit in the Summer, to make up for their cancellation of the Reading and Leeds dates this August (although some people, like me, were lucky enough to catch them steal the show at July’s Latitude.)

Oshin was an incredible, game changing record, which thrust some sort of shoegaze revival (that sounds appalling, but it’s much less cringey than calling it Nu-gaze, isn’t it?) into the forefront of the music scene. However, the sophomore record is looking to be an improvement on what is already perfection, a mind-blowing prospect, and a revitalising breath of fresh air from the very lacklustre current British music scene.

DIIV's stunning Dust, performed live at Captured Tracks Festival.

(written by Calum Cashin)